Theodore D. Robinson is an American multimedia portrait artist and photographer living and working with his partner between Palm Springs California and the South of France near the Spanish border close to where Salvador Dali resided.
Theodore has been drawing and painting since watching his mother Melinda who was also an accomplished artist paint when he was very young. Other family, as well as his friends and teachers encouraged his artistic talents and helped him earn his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. In the course of various experiments he discovered his style of portrait work by combining drawing, painting and photography toward the end of his formal education. In his Portrait Painting gallery on this site you will see one of his earliest portraits of music legend Sting for which he used as his source a tiny black and white photo from an, even then, old magazine. Theo enlarged it with a neolithic-era Lucy machine foreshadowing how he would develop his own unique style. A year or so later he accepted his first commission to re-create a nearly destroyed laminated photo of Tom Cruise. That set the direction for the next thirty years of Theodore’s work, specifically using source material of questionable quality and transforming it into a superior visual drawing or painting, a unique reproduction of something that might have otherwise been lost.
It is difficult to place Theo’s work in one medium or genre as he mixes ink with pencils in his portrait drawings and watercolors with acrylic in his paintings, not to mention using spray paint with both to create his signature backgrounds. His influences range from DaVinci to Caravaggio, Corot to Frazetta, and Nagel to Warhol in roughly chronological order, to name a few. Theodore submitted his early portfolio slides to Warhol’s Interview magazine but alas, by then the era of cover illustirations had been lost to photography courtesy of the new owners’ vision, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to develop and hone his individual style and skills. Theodore’s work is somewhat photo-realistic but he feels it is more accurately described as ‘photo-idealistic’ and optimistically believes it could be part of a new movement in a post-digital post-photoshop world he foresees in which fellow dinosaurs and retro old-school artists are appreciated and preferred to everyday visual trickery.
Until then he is semi-retired from accepting commissions, but Theo says that if someone has the right project anything can be possible. He rarely exhibits publicly as portraits don’t generally sell well off walls unless they are of Marilyn Monroe or homages to DaVinci or Warhol. In addition to the occasional commissions for his portrait drawings and paintings Theodore also accepts requests for portrait photography. To have more information on purchases and his varied services, projects and related fees or any general questions please contact info@robinsonarts.com View his work on this site and several other online platforms for independent artists at the following links.
Exhibitions:
1990: J. Karieva, Hotel Congress Tucson Az. U.S.A.
1994: Ivy’s Restaurant, San Francisco Ca. U.S.A.
1995: Sweet Inspiration Cafe, San Francisco, Ca. U.S.A.
1999: L’AN II Restaurant Paris France
2004: The Box Restaurant Covent Garden, London UK
2014: Loncon 3 World Sci-Fi Convention Group show, London UK
2016: Herkimer Historical Society Museum NY USA
2019: Salon Ana Portbou Spain
2021 Le Moulin De Titet Montesquieu-Volvestre- France|
https://en.
Education:
Bachelor’s in General Fine Arts 1990 University of Arizona